Mice

[Smokeydog]

Used the B26 and rear finish mower to blow leaves and chop up leaves on a 1/2 mile driveway. Noted black exhaust smoke when under load. At the shop stopped to check air cleaner. Packed with small acorns around the filter. Luckily no damage. Tied new dryer sheets in engine compartments of the tractors, trucks and car seem to help. In the shop have sealed metal cabinets to keep them from destroying expensive tools. Buy $5 government metal filing cabinets, tack sheet metal on the bottom to keep all the equipment filters and maintenance items clean.

 

[Dave M7040]

You have been warned to have a fire extinguisher on board

I have had several fires from squirrels building a nest around my turbocharger.

By the time i realized there was a fire I was some distance from my home and water.

Dave M7040

 

[lennyzx11]

Grrrrr....

Squirrels. Not mice in my case.

 

[Smokeydog]

Fire extinguishers should be standard equipment. The only chance in a few seconds to prevent a small fire from becoming a major problem.

 

[Industrial Toys]

What a different world it would be if ALL humans worked that hard and were that productive.

 

[4570Man]

What a different world it would be if ALL humans worked that hard and were that productive.

Yea, if the homeless people you mention in other threads worked half that hard they wouldn’t be homeless. Or worked at all...

 

[Tomtint]

last year I had no mice in any of my equipment other than the salt spreader. and they ruined that motor. all the other equipment was being used regularly and maybe that kept them away at nest building time. this year I had mouse crap and piss in the cab of my mini x and it stunk. I spent a few hours douching the cab and the smell is basically gone. I think that they look for places to nest in the early fall when the cold starts in. Im trying to make sure our equipment is active during that time now so maybe it will keep them away.

 

[BRMyers]

It was suggested to lift the hood and leave it open, so I tried that after finding a nest in my engine. In addition, I place moth balls in the engine. Since I have started these two items, no more nest in the engine. In addition, I toss one of those rodent repellent bags in the cab to try to keep them from inside there. So far, no noted nest or damage.

 

[JWR]

I have repeated mouse nesting on the small shelf under my fuse block in a MF2660. Repellent and or poison works but then that leaves a mess too. On the older Massey Harris Pacer the mice made nests in among the spark plugs in hard to reach places. I used it rarely but when I did it burned out the mice.

The reall horror stories are from those whose wiring harnesses were chewed beyond repair and had to be replaced. Luckily, so far, I have not had that !!

My manuals and literature and notes and paper towels all became mice nest materials until I mounted a surplus steel kitchen cabinet on the shop wall. They are unable to penetrate that.

 

[Roadworthy]

They've taken good old green D-Con off the market. I ordered a lifetime supply from eBay awhile back. I keep one or two boxes under the hoods of my cars. I've had no chewed wires or shredded fiberglass nests since I started. Did it solve the problem? I don't know but I've had no more evidence of mice. Keep them well fed and they won't eat stuff you care about.

 

[JWR]

Yep. I use the Tomcat green granules from Tractor Supply. Gallon bucket serves the tractor, garage and other farm sites. I have fed groundhogs going under the farmhouse but they seem to thrive on it instead of die from it.

 

[fried1765]

Yep. I use the Tomcat green granules from Tractor Supply. Gallon bucket serves the tractor, garage and other farm sites. I have fed groundhogs going under the farmhouse but they seem to thrive on it instead of die from it.

I buy J.T. Eaton Bait Blocks.
They are about 1" square green blocks with a hole drilled in the center.
They are peanut butter flavor, and they do seem to work.

A 4 pound plastic pail of the little blocks is $14.44 on ZORO.COM (#65162263) - maybe 50-60 little blocks in a pail?
I just drive some nails thru scrap lumber pieces, and slide one little block over each nail.

Active ingredient is Diphacinone ....whatever that is...

I also buy an 80 packet pail of De-Con ll, and I use about 40 of those each season.
I have a 290 year old house, and while I am in Florida, the mice really enjoy spending the winter in my house.
I try my best to keep them well fed.

 

[Tomtint]

They've taken good old green D-Con off the market. I ordered a lifetime supply from eBay awhile back. I keep one or two boxes under the hoods of my cars. I've had no chewed wires or shredded fiberglass nests since I started. Did it solve the problem? I don't know but I've had no more evidence of mice. Keep them well fed and they won't eat stuff you care about.

Im not apposed to taking that off the market. Poisoning is a horrible death. Mice or any other animal that may eat the dead poisoned mouse and get secondary poisoning. Family dog cat etc. Or even a owl or hawk.

 

[JWR]

One should always be skeptical of anything EPA ever did and a lot of things the FDA does,... plus whoever outlawed D-con. There MAY have been potential secondary dangers but whatever eats a mouse 'dead due to D-con' is not necessarily in danger #1, and #2 none of us ever saw or heard of an example case. in other words that stuff is far fetched and won't withstand the old farmer's logic test. D-con and most rat poison / mice poison was simply Warfarin, an anti blood clotting chemical. Millions of people have taken it as a Rx drug. It killed mice via them dying of internal bleeding, often in the brain. Now how dangerous was that to other animals and to us ? Not very.

 

[radios1]

Im not apposed to taking that off the market. Poisoning is a horrible death. Mice or any other animal that may eat the dead poisoned mouse and get secondary poisoning. Family dog cat etc. Or even a owl or hawk.

are you rich enough to pay for the damage caused by mice and rats to your fellow Humans though?. if so, then it's good it was taken off the market, but someone HAS to pay for the Damage!..

 

[caver]

I have used several methods at the same time to see what works. I also leave snakes be unless they are venomous. Ramhik green balls about the size of Trix cereal. They love to carry this stuff to the nest. Old fashioned rat traps. They don't work unless you nail spikes of death around the perimeter of the bait end. The treadle type trap seems to work the best. I just a rat last week the size of a large baked potato. Shocker traps... I've tried two different ones. One was battery and the other also had a 120V power adapter. Mixed results and have even caught a few mice. Bugs and whatever tend to short the high voltage plates out so they fail after awhile. Tin Cat...ehh sort of worked but they seem to avoid it like the plague now.

 

[fried1765]

New recipe?
Relish in dead mice?

 

[Travelover]

Moth balls and dryer sheets don't work. A great resource on mice and rats is Shawn Woods on Youtube - he tests traps and repellents every week. Shawn Woods
- YouTube